Recent Commotion Over Brandon Was Major War Training Exercise Called Jaded Thunder

Posted Nov 11, 2011 by Howard Altman

Updated Nov 11, 2011 at 11:07 PM

Remember all that commotion you heard over the skies of Brandon a few weeks back?

At the time, the folks at MacDill Air Force Base told me it was an exercise. But they didn’t offer too many details.

Turns out, it wasn’t just any exercise, but one called “Jaded Thunder” – a huge operation that trains ground troops, artillery and air units to work together.

How big was it?

So big that there was a simulated battlefield set up at the Avon Park Bombing Range resembling “real-life scenarios in combat” including “a fully functioning forward arming and refueling point, mock villages and a forward operating base,” according to an article written by Sgt. Tracy Weeden of the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade and published earlier this week in Clarksville Online “The Voice of Clarksville, Tenn.”

It was so big, it had AH-64 Apache attack helicopters and, all told, 10,000 30 mm-caliber rounds, 1,600 2.75-inch rockets, and a myriad of .50-caliber rounds fired off, according to Weeden’s article.

While it may have kept some people in the area awake at night, Jaded Thunder, which takes place each year at different bases around the country, was deemed a huge success.

“The exercise was a great success and we look forward to participating again. Being able to deploy an aviation task force of our great destiny soldiers to execute our mission essential tasks in a realistic, repetitive manner in support of our ground forces is about as good as it gets,” Lt. Col. William A. Ryan, 1st Battalion, 101st CAB commander, told Weeden. “Our soldiers departed after the 10-day exercise more competent, confident, and comfortable in their wartime tasks.”